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When You Hire an Executive, You're Hiring a Network

You’ve just raised a round of financing. Your next step is to build your management team. There are several criteria hire an executive. Competency in the field, cultural fit, communication skills, management experience. All of those should be obvious. There is one that is often overlooked. Network.

August 16, 2018

Lesson #284: How To Calculate Your Total Addressable Market Size

I have written many posts about the importance of determining your industry size for strategic planning or investor pitch purposes. But, determining your industry size is not always easy, and more importantly, determining your total addressable market (which I will define later), is even more important and an even more nebulous calculation. So, here is everything you need to know to make sure you are correctly calculating your total addressable market and going after the biggest total addressable market you can (which will attract more investors for your business).

August 9, 2018

SaaS Channel Sales Increasing Dramatically

In 2007, when OPEXEngine launched its first benchmarking of SaaS vendors, almost no SaaS companies in the data set were selling to end-user customers through a channel. Over a decade later, that statistic has changed dramatically.

August 7, 2018

Are We Investing Enough in Our Managers?

I met a seasoned executive recently. He made a bold claim. “Management is an art, and one that is overwhelmingly undervalued in Silicon Valley.” I wondered, are we investing enough in our managers?

August 2, 2018

Why We Added 10 New SaaS HR Benchmarks

Hiring and retaining skilled and productive employees in SaaS companies is an ongoing, competitive exercise. Human assets are the biggest investment and a huge driver of SaaS company valuations – but a lot of organizations don’t check SaaS HR benchmarks regularly or keep it in front of management the way they do customer lifetime value, retention and cost to acquire. However, when companies are preparing for IPO or being acquired, employee productivity is a critical valuation metric.

July 31, 2018

Where are We in the SaaS Valuation Cycle?

Recently, people have been asking just where are we in the SaaS valuation cycle. I last updated the chart above more than six months ago. The answer is close to ten year highs.

July 19, 2018

Avoiding Poor SaaS Customer Alignment

When I’m not completely absorbed with my agile marketing software startup, I do a bit of SaaS consulting on the side. SaaS colleagues come to me with a wide variety of problems from positioning to sales compensation to churn analysis, but lately I’ve noticed a common theme: poor SaaS customer alignment.

July 12, 2018

The 5 Forces Driving Startup Valuations Today

There are five forces driving the startup ecosystem today. They are working together to reinforce a high valuation environment.

June 21, 2018

Explaining Key SaaS Revenue Growth KPIs

Growth is the primary driver of value for early- and mid-stage SaaS companies. In subscription models, you invest in revenue acquisition up - front and then generate value over time by managing churn. Acquiring new recurring revenues burns cash, mostly in Sales and Marketing. SaaS executives need to understand how efficient their organizations are in acquiring new recurring revenues to ensure they are investing the right amount in revenue acquisition.

June 19, 2018